Another Springtime, with Dad

Another springtime, thank God. Light dazzles in the gardens; the breeze now cool, now warm, is fragrant; with the senses renewed, we also share a collective sense of miracle and hope.

I come from the café meeting with my father. Pushed out of the Pentagon over fifty years ago for being too politically progressive, he has been journalist and writer for many years. May Allah allow us all to continue the good work of our fathers! We discuss immanence. He is a serious scholar of literature as well as news. He is intellectually honest, too honest to claim knowledge of God that is not his, to put in words what is not namable. His own skeptic, logical positivist way is not entirely set in stone but it is his planet of reference. I must deeply respect his mind, sharp after over eighty years, resisting the frailties of the body.

Some of my received wisdom shatters like wind against that stone of strong humanity. We discuss the news and he is skeptical of all. He sees the distraction and the sloppiness of much reporting. And not even the Sufi stories I share with him impress him much. Who dares to sit in judgment of their father? And my faith does not shatter against that stone, but is slowly sharpened and made more flexible. I feel sure in this springtime warmth that there is a Prophet for Logical Positivists too, for honest men love Truth. And I love my father too.

We are not our fathers, and yet we are. So let us keep in mind the ideals and vision that went before us, the founding fathers of all things, great and small. This newspaper also had a founding father. The Mirror seeks reflection of the light of Truth— the Creator in the creation, allowing the reader to work towards objectivity as we scan the opinion and controversy of the spinning world. Yes, may Allah allow us all to continue the good work of our fathers, in new ways and new seasons!

Some things must change. Now it is Rumsfeld is the one who should be pushed out of the Pentagon. Despite the unusual efforts of top generals, the White House has resisted holding the Secretary accountable for the disastrous outcome of the Iraq war. At the same time, a December 20, 2005 Army Inspector General's report, obtained by Salon.com this past week, contains a sworn statement by Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt that implicates Secretary Rumsfeld in the abuse of detainee Mohammad al-Qahtani. And with Rumsfeld supervision, another detainee was forced to "stand naked in front of a female interrogator, was accused of being a homosexual, and was forced to wear women's underwear and to perform 'dog tricks' on a leash." It cannot be blamed only on the officers carrying out the policies.

Yet the White House itself is also guilty and too close to these same decisions. Even detainee abuse and torture were authorized by the policies and secret executive orders of the Bush White House, which is truly Dar al Harb. These policy makers institute cruel and unusual procedures in defiance of constitutional norms, indefinite detentions in the name of an unending “War on Terror.” How the military industrial complex must rejoice!


Interesting that some Muslim leaders still are sympathetic to Republicans in office. Why, oh why is leading Islamophobe Congressman Peter King the Co-Chairman of the Bangladesh Congressional Caucus? Despite his smears of Muslim leaders, his leadership in badly-written anti-immigrant legislation, his leading opposition to bilingual voting ballots, his paranoid politics as Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, his role in the Republican party?

What is behind this relationship, is it simply the foolishness of our leaders, or do they really extract concessions from him? That I truly doubt. Authoritarians flock together, even when interests diverge, because they speak the same language of repression and strong arm gamesmanship. If this serves the House of Peace, I would like to know how.

Like many Americans, we are distracted by sensationalist media stories. For some it is murder trials in North Carolina. For others, news concerns the lifestyles of Brad and Britney, or the tragic plight of a kitten trapped between buildings, which last week become a national and international story. After community help, Molly the cat has found her liberation. But have we found freedom from such media manipulation? Are our political choices also manipulated easily by such human interest topics that one can argue in the office, mini controversies like gay marriage and such, like cartoons and other distractions? Let us debate such issues but please not forget about more serious matters that demand much more serious and intelligent leaders in government.

The President of Iran plays the same cynical game. He blames the usual suspects—zionists—for everything. He claims that detainee abuse of the Bush gang proves the emptiness of Democracy. But surely that argument is like claiming that terrorism comes from Islam. These are false and stupid political arguments—the extremists that push and pull us from one side to another.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that Israel was a "constant threat" and predicted that it was on the verge of "being eliminated." His government then gives 50 million to Hamas. The next day, there is a terrorist strike at an Israeli Falafel restaurant. A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, says, "The resistance is a legal and natural reaction to the Israeli crimes, and the Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves." How is killing men and women eating their food appropriate “self defense”? No, not all Israelis are soldiers on duty. Collective punishment is wrong. We must all loudly condemn such false and self-serving reasoning, as it has seriously hurt the reputation of our religion.

Can we blame the media entirely, when they run after negative stories; daily bloody images from Iraq; the repeat viewing of the dram of 9/11, most recently the haunting transcript of United Airlines Flight 93 at the show trial of the monster Moussaoui; the Christian convert being threatened with execution in Afghanistan. Yes some media has an unfriendly agenda, but here are so many negative images to choose from. And these images affect the perceptions of our neighbors. Until recently, American views of their Muslim neighbors had been improving. A Pew Research Center poll released in July 2005, after the London terrorist bombings, showed that 55% of Americans had a favorable opinion of Muslim Americans. But a Washington Post/ABC News poll released in March showed that a majority of Americans have a negative view of Islam.

As Muslims we cannot deny the bad news. The challenge is to face it and not turn away. We must look steadily in the mirror and prepare for the day. What can we do about the face of the world that stares back in fear and confusion? Let us reflect on that seriously. There is still springtime, offering us a sign of hope—not merely for our false distraction. Morning light. Wake up. And time for work. Not forgetting.

Brain Storms without Brains

Brain Storms without Brains

Is diplomacy doomed? Is Iran next? And will we soon see nuclear bunker busters used to take out over 400 sites throughout Iran? You can imagine how we as Muslims would feel in that situation. And yet our government is planning for that contingency quite seriously.

Seymour Hersh, who first exposed the abuse at Abu Ghraib, and many other abuses, has published an alarming article in the New Yorker about how the Bush White House has given up on diplomacy and, in part to avoid Israeli reaction, is planning a massive bombing campaign to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, informing only a few selected people in Congress.

For the Bush White House, Democracy is so darned inconvenient at times of crisis, real or imagined! We have seen it with election phone jamming schemes, dirty tricks against whistle blowers and critics, Abramoff lobbying scandals, NSA surveillance, detention and torture policies. However, democracy and freedom of speech are also deeply misunderstood in Tehran, where the Foreign Ministry claimed the Hersh article was simply part of the psychological war by Americans “because they feel angry and desperate regarding Iran’s nuclear case.” So I guess now we hate them for their freedoms?

This spin is clearly a form of avoidance of the real pressure the US government is placing on Iran. Blinded by its own nationalistic rhetoric the Ahmadinejad government is clueless if it believes that all Americans have the same agenda. Similarly, Iranian list-serves send out denunciations of Noam Chomsky because he is not anti-Zionist enough for them! Ideological rigidity is the decadence of revolutionary rhetoric.

Too bad Iran cannot follow Brazil’s example and effectively build alternative sources of energy out of sugar cane! I am sure Jalaladdin Rumi would have approved! And why can’t we all be sweeter?

But instead we are still stuck with business as usual. Bitter kisses. Bitter tears. People are being sacrificed in the bloody streets of Baghdad. And while no one is safe, Shiah mosques have been particularly targeted. Muslims are slaughtered while at prayer. How tragically easy it is to set us Muslims off against each other in the Great Game of oil and strategic power politics!

If you feel strongly about this, get involved in new paradigms in Shia-Sunni dialogue. For example, MPAC is offering to fund a joint fellowship with the Qunoot Foundation for outreach to and research on the Shi'a Muslim community in the United States. Contact them before this week’s deadline (202) 547-7701 or (213) 383-3443. Or start your own project! As long as it does not involve nukes, please!

And speaking of plots, real and imagined; while A. Q. Khan has been “singing like a canary” in his gilded cage in Pakistan, a Mr. Naseem Khan has been singing pretty tunes for his FBI handlers in the USA; he has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for his creations. For example, he had been trying to convince Hamid Hayat to attend a jihad training camp. Without being an admirer of such camps, it seems to me yet another case of entrapment, not encampment. Prosecutors have claimed, “We have detected, we have disrupted, and we have deterred, and whatever was taking place in Lodi isn’t going to happen now!” But “whatever” is not too clear; the elder Mr Lodi was employed in ice cream delivery, and that, at least, isn’t going to happen now! Even journalists have begun to notice that the trial has not “lived up to advance billing,” but the jury may be too intimidated, or sympathetic to law enforcement, to risk letting off a “security risk.” We will see!

However, one positive thing we have seen and marveled at is the growing pro-immigration movement. Last week another half a million marchers turned out in Dallas, Texas; and on April 10th, hundreds of rallies took place in 45 states across the nation as part of the National Day of Action for Immigrant Rights.

On that day, I joined over 100,000 New Yorkers calling for an earned path to citizenship; a reduction in family backlogs; green cards for immigrant students who grow up in the US; and protections for all workers. It was a colorful sea of humanity, with not enough Muslims participating, but I did see some West African brothers with woolen kufis and their sisters with glowing faces; and South Asian sisters also were glimpsed among the Mexican flags and American flags and Arabic and Spanish and Hebrew signs.

Brit Hume, the news anchor on Fox News, described the marchers, particularly those carrying Mexican flags, as "a repellent spectacle." And Diane West wrote a paranoid editorial in the conservative, Unification Church-owned Washington Times, claiming, “Small wonder that some organizational solidarity exists between Islamic and Mexican radical groups -- as seen, for example, when the Council on American-Islamic Relations joins a "pro-immigrant" rally at the U.S. Capitol.” She warns of supporters of “creeping Shariah” in league with Anti-Americans affiliated with ‘"civil justice" and "socialism and liberation" groups, the Mexico Solidarity Network, the Nicaragua Network, the Free Palestine Alliance and the Muslim Student Association.’ Alas, sometimes our enemies give us more credit than we deserve!

As the Irish immigration website states, “It is more urgent now for us to be heard, as the anti-immigrant people are already outnumbering us 2-1 on the phones.” To be counted in favor of immigrant rights, family reunification and a path to legalization, call Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Arlen Specter at (202) 224-4254. Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, has opposed any compromise on what he calls "amnesty” (202-224-4124) and so does Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas (202-224-2934) so if you are from those states or have relatives there you should call them! Everyone should also call powerful Republican Senator Frist (202-224-3344) who has been stalling the bills. He wants to run for President—so let him know you vote!

You don’t have to be a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist to have an opinion—or to hold office. In fact, it doesn’t take a spoonful of brains to know that if you don’t use your rights you lose your rights. Just program your cell phone—that’s the cell we all belong to after all – so let technology help us serve social justice for a change!